This invention relates to liquid drainage devices for fluid conduit systems and, more particularly, this invention relates to devices for removing condensate from steam lines.
As steam travels through piping, it loses heat and condenses. As such, steam piping systems must be provided with equipment to remove the condensate which accumulates as heat is lost from the steam. Generally, condensate removal equipment is located at low points or pockets in the steam piping and at regular intervals in the extended runs of the steam piping, as well as at steam driven equipment which could be damaged by condensate.
Prior art condensate removal assemblies were often expensive to replace or repair, often required welded connections, and were not readily field repairable. These systems were expensive because each end of the condensate removal system was individually engineered to align with and connect to the specific steam system. Such assemblies were also cumbersome and inefficient to service because the assemblies generally required welded connections between the steam piping and the condensate removal assembly. Thus, any repair, maintenance or replacement required breaking old welds and forming new welds. Prior art steam systems also very often allowed for repair and replacement of the condensate removal device employed therein without having to shut down the steam system. The present invention requires shutting down the steam system for repair, which ensures greater safety to the operators. Also, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,209 to Brown, the connections between the condensate removal assembly and the steam piping were typically threaded, resulting in a change in diameter due to one pipe being threaded into the other. This change in diameter resulted in complications in the steam system including the formation of eddy currents and pressure and steam travel rate fluctuations which reduced the overall performance of the steam system.
Older equipment, such as the widely employed inverted bucket condensate trap, has increasingly been replaced with more simplified orifice-style devices which alleviated many drawbacks of the prior art. For example, the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,213 includes a nozzle forming a restriction positioned in steam lines after a Y strainer and enables condensate to be forced through the small diameter orifice by the high pressure steam while preventing the steam from exiting through the orifice. The device also allows the nozzles to be interchangeable for service in a range of steam pressures.
The described device, however, can be improved upon in certain applications. The length of the nozzle device in combination with the Y strainer may be greater than the standard length for the inverted bucket condensate traps. Therefore, to be employed, the nozzle devices may require extensive modification to the steam equipment in condensate lines. In addition, use of the prior art condensate removal device in a steam system having flanged connections may require welding to add the necessary flanges to the condensate removal device.
The present invention accomplishes condensate removal from steam piping while improving upon prior art condensate removal devices. Thus, the present invention allows for convenient, efficient condensate removal from steam piping in a variety of different steam piping applications without requiring any piping re-configurations or expensive retrofitting.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device which removes condensate from steam lines while preventing the outflow of live steam.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device which can be employed in place of existing inverted bucket steam traps having standard dimensions.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a device which can be readily connected to steam lines and condensate lines having flange connections.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a condensate removal device which utilizes a removable nozzle which can be readily repaired or replaced at the location of operation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a condensate removal device which is of a standard size and which can be bolted to and removed from existing steam systems.